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Joaquin Nu?ez: Ruta De La Clave

By Richard J Salvucci
July 8, 2025
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Ruta de la Clave is everything a good recording should be: listenable, stimulating, thoughtful, a bit eclectic and, above all, musical.

Joaquin Nuñez

percussion

" data-original-title="" title="">Joaquin Nu?ez has set out to do a version of the "history of the clave." Of course, this is a unique vision, a distillation of Nú?ez's experiences as a Cuban-Canadian percussionist. But his overall goal is considerably greater, "a reinvention of Afro-Cuban jazz." That is a pretty tall order.

Others will say whether Nú?ez achieves that, but he does succeed in producing something rather different. The vocals in particular are intriguing, not quite what one would expect this genre, a sort of

Swingle Singers

band / ensemble / orchestra
b.1962

" data-original-title="" title="">Swingle Singers meet clave. But what else would you expect from musicians heavily influenced by

Charlie Parker

saxophone, alto
1920 - 1955

" data-original-title="" title="">Charlie Parker,

Dizzy Gillespie

trumpet
1917 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Dizzy Gillespie and classic bebop in general? Their sound is assimilated, not imitated, which is the hardest thing to accomplish. It is really no wonder that a listener who grew up to later versions of New York swing bands hears echoes of them, especially in some of terrific flute-led passages. Yes, there were outfits, even commercial ones, that could produce a similar sound and feeling in the early 1960s, but that detracts not a bit from what Nú?ez does. Good music is good music. It defies genres, conventions, pigeonholes and the rest. People who talk about universal language are not just idly enthusing. That is just what Ruta de la Clave provides.

So one gets danzón ("Danzón Sin Tumbao"), changüí ("Mi Changüí"), rumba ("Rumba de Solar") and the narrative "Una Guajira en Nueva York," the story of a peasant girl who encounters the instrumentation of the clave in the streets. "Suite Columbia" is another narrative, of an African brought to Cuba, which has already been culturally Africanized by the truly enormous influx of the 19th-century trans-Atlantic slave trade. This is not just some romantic tale. Between the 1780s and the 1860s, 800,000 Africans to work primarily in the sugar cane plantations and boiling factories were enslaved and brought to Cuba, twice as many Africans as had been forcibly transported to the United States. So the vital influence of African rhythms, drumming, religion and language decorate Ruta de la Clave, even as players who had been steeped in swing and bebop had already broken ground in which the transplant could flourish. The recording is different, original and refreshingly free of the clichés that often plague Latino music. It should find the wide audience it merits.

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Track Listing

Afrocubanos; Mi Changüí; Juaco & Day; Ruta De La Clave; Danzón Sin Tumbao; Rumba De Solar; Una Guajira En NY; Nostalgia; Suite Columbia.

Personnel

Joaquin Nu?ez

percussion

Dayramir Gonzalez

piano

Marta Elena

vocals

Joanna Majoko

vocals

Dyalis Nú?ez-Machado

vocals

Roberto Riveron

bass

Paco Luviano

bass, electric

Alexander Brown

trumpet

Jeff King

saxophone, tenor

Luis Deniz

saxophone, alto

Bill McBirnie

flute

Colleen Allen

saxophone

Esteban Vargas

violin

Mark Daniels

guitar, electric

Album information

Title: Ruta De La Clave | Year Released: 2025 | Record Label: Lulaworld Records

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